Tahiti... get yourself at least 6 good carving tools... keep three chisels real sharp... you'll be amazed at what you can do and how good you'll get... I've been surprising myself and friends after only 2 years...

Carving is as difficult or as easy as you want to make it... only after doing it many times will you find that it gets easier... you took the hardest step already by starting to carve... keep at it and don't lose the stoke!

Here is my first carving headed for the Mai Kai Gift Shop (and specially tagged as such!), an aged, accurate copy of a 100-year-old Darimo Ebiha New Guinea Paupuan Gulf Gope Board. Each of the designs that I carve for consignment at the Mai Kai will be available no where else; I wanted to give them an exclusive on certain things...I consider it a great priviledge to sell there, and wanted to give them something special, so if you wish to buy seconds of any of the forthcoming designs you'll have to put in a request at the Mai Kai. Hope this deal goes well...this is my first real outing for my carvings..

I dunno..there's a lot of good carvers in the P.R.C. (People's Republic of California) ...it would be hard for me to compete with the old hands at it. Seriously, I'd love to be represented out there somewhere, sometime, although I am a total lone gunman with a small garage workshop, and pretty much carve what I can carve with what I have, if you know what I mean. I know there's no way I can compete in the quantity department until I could take on a partner or assistant, but I want to keep the detail, finish, and quality the same if I ever do get to that point. I flat refuse to go the quickie route...I don't feel it does the beauty of Pacific Rim art traditions the justice that the tiki carvers of the 50's were still pulling off in their carvings. All of those guys were just so damned good...right there in that Polynesian "sweet spot", you know? It's sort of like the old beer window...that magic place between too much beer and not enough beer? A good example: take a look at the muscle on Leroy Scmaltz's upper body sometime (he must be 70 by now?)..That's pure blood, sweat, and tears, baby. That's from doing it right for a very, very long time! I admire that like nothing else. Does anybody in Georgia want to start a tiki carving collective in Clayton??...(chuckle, chuckle)

Kind of a newbie here, but was very inspired by this thread... figured I had nothing better to do today, so I grabed a cocktail, a chainsaw and other various impliments of destruction and started my first carving today out of a dead tree at the entrance to one of my back yard paths...after a few hours (mostly looking and wonding what to do next) here's me tiki numero under in progress...

...more pics as the destruction of this inocent chunk of wood continues.

FastCo, there's a definite Florida influence.......or possibly, what was that famous peanut farmers name? Not a putdown, we're all influenced by someone. Regional influence, it's coo......
Go deep young man...go deep. All new carvers are a little shy at first. Go deep and carve the %@#* out of the next one.
_________________Oki NiKsoKoWa
(Hello all my relatives)
TikiJungle.com

JT,
man, you've got an eye! - early 80's I went to Art Institute of Ft Laud, then worked doing air-brush T-shirts on the FL East coast for awhile, - Cocao Beach, and more specifically, Ron Jon's does have a look all it's own. I really didn't think about that influence until you pointed it out.

Also, thanks for the pointers and the "young man" comment lol - I'm not affraid about getting deep, just being my first time, I was trying to get satisfied with the look and layout before committing to the deep cuts.

this is a short squaty one which it does look like it has been hit by a truck (jungletrader). what i plan to do is cut it in half and carve another face on the second half. once the two sides are carved i was going to put the faces pointing out (so the flat side also face each other) and notch down the back (flat side) so i can put strips of wood (like teak or a wood simular cheaper wood) across the two halves and make a bench.